Wheel pit



' J. F. FISHER Oct 6,

WHEEL PIT Filed Dec. 12. 1924 from/fx Patented Oct. 6, 1925.

UN-ITEDSTATES JOHN EREEERICKEISHER, OE sT. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR ToAMERICAN CAR AND FOUNDRY COMPANY, OE NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION orNEW JERSEY.

WHEEL PIT.

AppIication filed December 12, 1924. Serial No. 755,488.

To all whom t may concern i Be it known that I, JOHN F. FISHER, residingat St. Louis, Missouri, and being a citizen of theUnited States, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in a Wheel Pit, of whichthe following is a full, clear, `and exact description, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and touse the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings whichillustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to` beunderstood that the invention is'not limited to the exact details ofconstruction `shown and described, as it is obvious that variousmodifications thereof within the scope of the claims willk occur topersons skilled in the art.

In said drawings: i y f .Figure 1 is a view partly in vertical` sec-;tion and partly. elevation of a wheel pit constructed in accordancewith this invention, and f Figure k2 is a horizontal Section of thewheel pit taken along` line 2-2 of Fig.t1, the wheels being omitted. y

. It is an Objectfof this invention to provide an improved cooling pitfor casty car wheels and more particularly to provide a pit ofthetypedescribed wherein provision .is made/for Setting up a circulation of airywithin the .pit so that the top wheel inthe `pit will cool uniformlywith the rest of the wheels in the pit. l

- Another object of the inventionfis to provide a pit, whichr is Soconstructed that the yguide flanges of the wheels may be positionedclose to the enclosingwall of the pit `and relatively small pocketsprovided between the wall of the pit and tread portions of the wheels,so that air, which will be comparatively still, will accumulate in thesepockets and assist in causing the wheels to be uniformly cooled.

Another object ofthe invention is toprovide ay pit which may be closedand thus preventoutsideair from entering the pit and mixing with' theair circulating in the pit yduring-the cooling of the wheels.

` Another object of the invention is to pro- 'vide a pitin which astackof wheels may be supported in the pit in propery spaced relation to thetop and bottomy of the pit, to permitthe air to pass upwardly throughthe .hub portions of thefwheels and downwardly through air ductsprovided in the enclosing wall of the pit.

This improved pit is to be disposed vertically and is provided with anouter casing which is cylindrical in shape and provided with a bottom 1and an annular wall 2. This casing is open at its upper end and at itsopen upper end isprovided with a collar 3 which rests upon the upperedge of the casing and is provided with a depending retaining flange 4which holds the collar in proper position upon the casing. An annulargroove or seat 5 leads from the upper face of this collar to receive thedepending flange 6 of the Icover 7 which will be put in place to closethe pit at its upper end after the wheels have been put in place withinthe pit. f f

The bottom- 1 of this casing is covered by a flooring 8 ywhich is formedof tiles put in place,as shown inFigs. 1 and 2. At the center of theflooring there has been provided a block 9 which tapers upwardly, asshown in Fig. 1, and carries posts 10 which Vextend upwardly from theblock in spaced yrelation circumferentially thereof. These postsk extendabove the Aupper end of the `block and are so spaced in relation to each-other thatwhen the wheels are put in place within the pit, the lowerwheel will have its hub: portion resting upon the upper ends of theposts. The-Stack of'wheels will therefore be supported in the pit inspaced relation tothe fiooring SSO that air can pass `betweenthepostsand upwardly through a flue or duct formed by the axle receivingopenings inthe hubs of the stack of wheels. The annular wall 2 of thecasing is also provided with. a lining which provides an enclosing wallfor the stack of wheels. This lining is rformed of blocks 11 whichy arearcuate in shape, as Shown in Fig. 2. The blocks will be formed of anysuitable mate- 4rial and will each be provided intermediate `its length'with an opening 12 and at its ends with grooves 13. When the blocks areutiin place to form the enclosing wall or ming the end groovesof eachtier of blocks `will cooperate to provide Openings Similar to theopenings 12 and when. the wall is completely built, these openings inthe tiers of blocks `will cooperate to provide air ducts which extendvertically through the enclosing wall. These air ducts are open at their.uppergends and are also open at their lower ends. It should be noted,however, that the blocks 14 which form the base of the enclosing walland rest upon the flooring 8 have the .openings 15 formed to provideoutlet mo'uths for the ducts which are disposed at a Vdownward andinward incline, as shown in Fig. 1, and therefore sand and other foreignmatter will not collect at the lower ends of the ducts but will pass outof these ducts and on to the llooring 8 where it `can be readilyremoved. The shape of the block 9 also serves to cause sand and otherforeign matter such as scale from the cooling wheels to move on to theflooring 8 to suoli a point that it can be readily removed. The wheelsare to be properly centered in the pit with their hubs disposed abovethe posts 10 and the guide flanges in slightly spaced relation to theenclosing wall formed of the blocks, and therefore at points spacedcircumferentially of the enclosing wall there has been provided spacingstrips 17 formed of metal and secured in place between certain of theblocks, as shown in Fig. 2, with their edge portions extending beyondthe inner face of this enclosing wall. These protruding port-ions of thestrips 17 can therefore serve to engage the guide flanges of a stack ofwheels and retain the wheels properly stacked one upon another and inproper spaced relation' to the inner face of the enclosing wall.

When this pit is in use, a stack of wheels will be lowered into the pitwith the hub portion of the lower wheel resting upon the posts 10. Inthe preferred manner the wheels will be lowered one at a time and thestack built within the pit, but if desired, the wheels may be stackedoutside of the pit and the entire stack lowered at one time. After thestack has been built in the pit, the cover 7 will be put in place and asthe hub portions of the wheels contain a greater mass of metal, an aircirculation will be set up within the pit, as indicated by the arrows inF ig. 1. This air passes upwardly through the flue or duct formed by theaxle receiving openings in the hubs of the wheels and when the airreaches the top of the pit, it will then move towards the side wallsthereof above the upper end of the lining or enclosing wall and passVdownwardly through the ducts formed in this enclosing wall. These ductsformed in theenclosing wall will have a combined capacity approximatelyvthe' same as the capacity of the duct or flue formed by the wheel hubsand therefore a free circulation will be permitted. A certain amount ofair passesv into the space Abetween the tread portions of the wheels andthe inner face of the enclosing` wall. This air will circulate in thepockets formed between the guide flanges of the T-.vheels in the form ofeddies7 as indicated by the arrows in Figure 1, and this air about thetread portions of the wheels will therefore be practically still air andwill serve to cause the tread portions of the 1wheels to cool atapproximately the same rate as the hub portions. It will therefore beseen that with this improved pit the wheels will be evenly cooled at allpoints and a very strong wheel produced.

What is claimed is.:

1. In a wheel cooling pit, an enclosing wall having air ducts thereinopen at the top and bottom, and a supporting block for reeciving thewheel hubs having passages for directing the air currents to the axlebores of the wheel hubs.

2. In a wheel cooling pit, an enclosing wall having air ducts thereinopen at the top and bottom, a supporting block for receiving the wheelhubs and guides for the wheels mounted in said enclosing wall.

In awheel cooling pit, an enclosing` wall having air ducts therein, acasing enclosing said wall, a supporting block for receiving the wheelhubs and a cover for said pit carried by said casing and spaced from thetop of said wall.

4. In a wheel cooling pit, an enclosing wall having air ducts thereinopen at their uppei' and lower ends for communication with the upper andlower portions of the pit and having a combined air capacitycorresponding to that of an axially vdisposed air passage provided bythe hubs of wheels stacked in the pit and supported in spaced relationto the top and bottom of the pit.

5. In a wheel cooling pit, an enclosing wall providing the pit with aninterior diameter slightly greater than the external diameter of a stackof wheels at the guide flanges of the wheels, said wall having air ductsopening through its upper and lower ends for communication with the topand bottom of the pit, and means for supporting a stack of wheels in thepit and permit air to pass through the axle receiving hub openings ofthe wheels.

. 6. In a wheel `cooling pit, an enclosing wall providing the pit withan interior diameter slightly greater than the external diameter of astack of wheels at the guide flanges of the wheels, said wall having airducts opening through its upper and lower ends for communication withthe top and bottom of the pit. and means for supporting a stack. ofwheels in said pit in spaced relation to the top and bottoni of the pit.

7. A wheel cooling pit having bottom, an enclosing wall, and a coverfor4 closing the pit at its upper end and shutting off communicationwith the outer atmosphere, said wall having vertically disposed airducts open at their upper and lower ends for communication with theupper and lower end portions of the pit. and means for supporting astack of wheels in the pit in spaced relation to the top and bottom ofthe pit and permitting air to pass through the hub portions of wheelsstacked in the Dit.

l 8. A wheel cooling pit having a bottom, an enclosing wall, and a coverfor closing the pit at its upper end and shutting oil communication withthe outer atmosphere, vertical air ducts being provided about theenclosing wall and communicating with the upper and lower ends of thepit, and means for supporting a stack of wheels in the pit in spacedrelation to the top and bottom of the pit.

9. A Wheel cooling pit having a bottom, an enclosing wall, and a coverfor closing the pit at its upper end and shutting off communication withthe outer atmosphere7 vertical air ducts being provided about theenclosing wall and communicating with the upper and lower ends of thepit, means for supporting a stack of wheels in the pit in spacedrelation to the top and bottom of the pit, and including upwardlyextending posts for engaging the lower wheel in spaced yrelation to eachother circumferentially of the wheel.

10. A wheel cooling pit having a bottom7 an enclosing wall provided withair duets opening through its upper end for communication with the upperportion of the pit and having their lower ends opening through the innerface of the wall adjacent the bottom and at their `open lower endshaving faces extending downwardly at an inward incline, and meansextending upwardly from said bottom for supporting a stack of wheels inthe pit in spaced relation to the bottom.

ll. A Wheel coolingpit having a bottom and an enclosing wall, verticallydisposed air ducts being provided about the wall and open at their upperand lower ends for communication with the upper and lower portions ofthe pit, and means for supporting a stack of wheels in said pit, saidmeans comprising a block disposed axially of the pit upon the botto-mand tapered upwardly, and posts extending upwardly from said block inspaced relation circumferentially thereof for engaging the lower wheelof a stack.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN FREDERICK FISHER.

